Changing how we manage our water assets

Since the privatisation of water companies in England in Wales, over £150 billion of capital has been invested in building new assets and replacing old ones.

Now the focus is shifting away from new-build capital programmes towards the performance driven operation, maintenance and refurbishment of existing assets, focusing on outcomes instead of outputs.

We need to increase the industry’s focus on working with the environment to balance the construction of new assets and involve other stakeholders to improve the overall environmental system performance says Andrew Stiven, Stantec’s Director of Business Consulting.

In this Institute of Water Magazine article, Andrew explores how applying a risk-based Totex hierarchy approach to strategic asset management decisions can reduce costs, carbon, minimise construction and maximise the part that nature can play in achieving the best outcomes.